Spectrum
by dontstraytoofar
Summary: You see that thing called 'colour' only when your eyes meet. It's cliche but ironically true, that before her the world was black and white. Its how life is I guess, black and white until you see love. Cosima understands, she does, but it doesn't mean she has to like it when false hope cracks its way through. Cophine au Reviews are appreciated rated M for language and sex scenes
1. New beginnings and old endings

**Just finished season 2 of Oprhan Black and I'm obsessed with these two and the show :) This idea for the story came from a tumblr post I saw (sorry can't remember where) but i had an urgent need to write this! Will update other fics soon but right now I'm getting sucked into this. Enjoy **

It was grey when her eyes met the morning light, filtering in through her white windows and hitting her grey irises making her groan. She woke up to colourless days, exactly like the last 24 years of Cosima's life.

Actually, she would describe it more of black and white mixed together, like paint spilled on a table top. All just three main colours: black, white and every once and a while, a pasty grey. It was weird, and she never understood it, but it seemed the world worked in weird wondrous ways.

For it was to be believed, that when you met 'the one' these other colours like red, green, purple and blue would spill across your eyes, a spectrum of brightness and colour that would make the ocean seem sad and blood seem deeply bright.

Cosima called bullshit.

Because in the years that she's walked in this colourless world, she had never seen a yellow sun or a green hill. No one had yet to colour her world, and quite frankly she thought it to be _way _to cliche. What? Like she'll walk into work today and suddenly have an epiphany of the colour purple as she sets her eyes on someone else?

Yeah. And pigs fly.

But due to other peoples stories of how beautiful fruit looked or how it was to look at someone else eye pallet, Cosima held hope. Held onto the hope that she could see this amazing thing everyone else who held love could see.

It kept her up at night sometimes, her sister Sarah fell in love at 16. Already seeing the colours way before her. But they all told her to hold on, she was only 24 and she had a whole life ahead of her and she'll see this wondrous thing called colour soon enough.

But while she grabbed her black and grey checkered jacket from the end of her bed as she left for work, she always held doubt. And as she opened her white door and locked it behind her, she held doubt. While she walked the grey pavement and saw a couple holding hands, she held doubt. Especially when she heard them pointing and saying how bright the day was, how blue the sky was today.

Looking down while counting cracks in the sidewalk, she neared the subway station. Grey numbers on a board over head told her that her train would be delayed 3 minutes. Puffing out a breath of air she looked around and spotted a spare seat next to a plump elderly man reading the newspaper.

Sitting down and letting her shoulder bag droop to the floor, Cosima laid back and folded her arms in waiting. Glancing to her left she read over the mans shoulder as he flipped pages. His gruff voice pulled her out of her deep reading.

"Nice day, huh? Blue skies like today for the rest of the week, apparently" His fingers tapped the paper to the weather section and he smiled warmly. She smiled back and hid her sadness on the topic as she straightened up. "Yeah, great weather for this time of year" His next words were cut off by the screeching of the train as Cosima stood up.

_"__Boarding the 7:24 via Huxley Station" _

"Thats my train. Have a nice day, sir" Smiling and waving awkwardly, the brunette shouldered her bag and stepped onto the train. Finding no seats, she opted to lean against a pole and let her head drop back.

Looking out the open train doors she saw the man fold his newspaper as an elderly woman grabbed his hand. He smiled. The woman smiled. And Cosima smiled. He patted the grey haired lady's hand and kissed her on the cheek.

The forecast was sunny blue skies for the rest of the week and Cosima silently thanked the man for the accurate weather report.

The train doors slowly closed and Cosima looked out as a woman with curly short hair yelled. The woman was running to catch up to the departing train and Cosima heard distant french said in somewhat profanity. She was carrying a cardboard box holding various items and Cosima wonders why she remembers that and not the way her hair was perfect or the way her brown eyes shone.

Wait. _Brown?_

Cosima's head turned so fast she heard her neck crack. Her eyes flicked to the now distant woman again, and she saw yellow sun in her hair. She saw pink lips and red cheeks and it took all of her will power not to cry. She saw perfect sand coloured skin and clothes of colours she's never seen. She saw a silver necklace around her neck and purple flats that adorned the woman's feet. She wore an emerald green (she guessed these colours as they flicked through her brain) coat in the arms of the box covered hands.

An aura of brightness glowed around the woman and she was the only colourful thing Cosima had ever seen in her entire life.

She smiled excitedly and went to get off the train only to be met with closed doors. Being snapped out of a trance she realised the train had now entered a tunnel. She didn't see smooth lips or brown eyes (now that she knew what brown looked like) and everything was a grey spillage again.

"No no no no no" She whispered it repeatedly and darted forward to the doors and smacked the glass with her palms. Tears pricked her eyes, she wanted to see those pink lips again.

"Miss, is everything alright?" A woman with grey eyes and grey hair in a business suit and skirt looked on with a worried gaze. Cosima looked back and everything was fucking black and white again. "I need to get off this train. _Now" _

Her pleading voice reached her ears and she winced at how desperate she sounded. But not caring and only wanting to get off she elaborated. "I just saw colour. I need to get off right now" The woman's eyes grew sad and she smiled apologetically. "I'm so sorry but that was the last stop, its a straight line from here"

She closed her eyes and lent back on the doors. Sighing, she willed her eyes to dry and she tried to hold onto the colours she saw. But the blonde of her hair was fading to white and her purple shoes were black.

"What did it look like?" She opened her eyes to a little girl below her with big inquisitive eyes. She looked back up and saw people smiling and encouraging her with sad eyes. They didn't pity her as such, many of them had never been able to find colour.

They were happy but sad, its weird how humans are.

She kneeled to the little girl and smiled. "Which one?" The girl giggle and answered. "Both"

The people in the train looked on eagerly and listened with intent. Cosima thought of the yellow haired woman's eyes and how pretty a bland colour of brown could be.

"It was beautiful. She was beautiful. I guess I gotta hope she didn't go to far, right?" The girl nodded and the people around them smiled, strangers on a train had never felt so familiar.

"Don't worry, you'll find her." She stood back up and folded her arms. "Yeah, I hope so kid. Hope so"

Its all she ever does. Hope, hope, hope. Hope for love and colours. Goddamn hope.

The train doors behind her opened and people filtered out to go their colourful or black and white lives. She gripped the strap on her bag tighter and walked out with the crowd. Holding onto that fucking hope again.

She walked into streets of grey faces and into the DYADS grey science labs. She greeted Scotty and the guys in her usual group as she sat at her desk. She couldn't get the feeling of those colours out of her mind. Would she ever see her again? I mean at least she didn't live like, in another country or some shit. She could try and find her? Ask locals? No, too stalker-ish.

Facebook? No, had no name. Face recogniser? Okay, _way _too Criminal minds for real life.

She pondered this as she stared into blank space. Derek, one of the guys in her group with pimples not yet left his face since puberty, whispered to Scotty.

"Dude, does Cosima seem a little off today?" Swivelling his chair to face her direction he screwed his eyebrows and considered. Her eyes did seem a little distant and forlorn. "Huh" He pushed his chair and lent his elbows in front of her on her desk.

Waving his hand up and down in front of her face he called out to her. "Cosiiiiimaaaa" Her eyes were still glazed behind thick glasses and her eyebrows twitched.

"COSIMA!" Her body lept and her hands flew, knocking stray test tubes as she yelped "Ah! Scotty what the hell?" He looked sheepishly toward her and shrugged. "Sorry, but you kinda looked depressed. Everything…okay?"

She let out a breath. Depressed? Yeah pretty damn close.

But his sweet face and nice gestures stopped her from lashing out accordingly. His was cute in a geeky kind of way and made the best type of friend. She couldn't argue with that. "Yeah, every things cool." He smiled relieved and nodded. "Cool" He perked up a bit as he seemed to remember something and folded his arms across from Cosima.

"Hey, you hear of the new intern?" Cosima's interest spiked. They hadn't had a new intern since Johnny the computer geek guy a year ago, and to be honest she hoped for a girl this time (seriously this much testosterone in a work place drives a girl crazy sometimes)

"Really, who?" He smiled at the conversation and continued. "A french exchange student from, well, France. Pretty neat huh? She majors in immunology" Her heart skipped a beat at the word 'french'.

She was reminded of a woman with a box in her hands who, she was pretty sure, shouted "fils de salope" and from 2 years in french class gathered the meaning.

"She was in here actually, just missed her." Her eyes flickered to a grey box across from her desk. Sitting amidst other items such as a cloak that draped the swivel chair. Cosima's heart started a fast rhythm and she felt it nearly break the surface. She didn't need colour to know it was the emerald she saw at the station.

Jumping up and nearly knocking over her chair, Cosima's eyes excitedly ran the corners of the room. "Where a bouts did she go?" Perplexed at her excitement and lit up face Scotty looked around. "Uhm, toilet I think? Why?" Biting her lip embarrassed she scratched the back of her head and made a quick excuse. "Introducing her to the world of DYAD science, featuring Cosima!"

Grabbing her lab coat and darting to the door her smile seemed to light up the labs walls that day. And as she stepped out into the hall, she couldn't help but think the world _was_ colourful, even if the colours weren't really there.

It was coloured with that goddamn hope again. The feeling of hope in pink lips and hazelnut eyes.

**ps sorry if i got the french wrong but it ****translates****to son of a bitch? you can correct me on that :)**


	2. Let the spectrum in

**Chapter 2! all mistakes are mine. enjoy x**

The hope turned to a bathroom door and muffled sounds of tap water running.

Wiping her sweaty hands on the sides of her pants, Cosima fixed her glasses and placed her hands on the bathroom door. _Okay, now push. Cosima move your butt in there, go. _She breathed in and calmed her nerves. _You're being a pussy, just walk in and say hey. No biggie. _Her brain was screaming and she's pretty sure she could hear her heart echoing its words.

Breathing out through her nose she pushed on the door and the hinges swung. Looking up with berated breath and her heart beating a mile a minute….Cosima was met with empty sinks and space. No colour, just the reflective surface of a mirror and definitely no blonde beauty staring into the glass.

_Sigh. Great..just effing great. _Leaning back with her hands braced at the sinks edge, Cosima sighed closing her eyes. At this rate, with fate or whatever being a bitch, the colour brown wouldn't be greeting her anytime soon. Black and white were starting to annoy her, how do people live like this? The people who never get to see colour? She knew of course. It fucking sucked, and it was worse when you get a taste of it and somehow it keeps being pulled away from you.

Shaking her head and standing straight again she headed for the bathroom door. Her mutterings were quite and she folded her arms as she neared the exit. "Who needs colour anyway? Ive been doing fan-fucking-tastic my whole life." She scoffed as she opened the door. "Stupid soulmate shit and there perfect hair and mouth and eyes an-"

A collision of bodies and a startled _oh merde _surrounded her senses. Her glasses skewed briefly and apologies already on her lips Cosima hurried. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry" She looked up and saw dimples mixed with a beautiful smile.

A thick accent followed the lips of the smile and Cosima melted at the sound. "Oh, its ok. My apolog-" Her voice broke as she saw warm eyes and brown dreadlocked hair, the woman she bumped into wore a necklace adorning a spiral coloured with..with blue? _Qui..? _She raked her eyes up and across the captivating strangers face and met her eyes.

Delphine herself wondered of when she would see colour. See that blinding yellow or warm green, going so far as too scientifically find a reason for why our eyes didn't seemingly see the pigments until seeing anothers.

But it spilled across her view when the woman in glasses looked up and Delphine thought of those cheesy romance films she would watch after a bad day. She felt the universe bubble in her stomach and the smaller brunette in front of her smiled like she felt it too.

She stood motionless, watching the other woman's mouth open and close trying to find words. Her own mouth was agape as well, taking in the oranges of her shirt and the blue of her jeans. She saw the gold sparkle of her nose ring and the little detail of murky hazel green in her eyes. The faintest of light brown in her hair and the red of her tongue while she tried to form words.

Delphine was already taken by the colours of the girl who slammed into her body and splayed them across her vision. She was beautiful, and her word filter couldn't stop her from announcing it.

"Jésus vous êtes belle." It was a throaty whisper and she blushed at her own words but smiled as she noticed a smilier colour on the petite woman's cheeks.

Cosima stuttered, too enamoured by those colours on the woman and the voice of a french goddess (the only words she could think of at the time). "Uh..Uhm, I have no idea what you just said but right back at you" Cosima's voice radiated awe as she mapped the blonde hair and light freckles on her nose thinking of a way to form a valid sentence back.

The 'french goddess' giggled in response, holding out her hand and smiling warmly. "Delphine. Delphine Cormier" Shaking her head to clear the haze, she looked up and repeated the name in a whisper. "Delphine….Right yeah, I'm Cosima….Niehaus" She took her hand and noticed the smooth colour of Delphine's skin, the cream expanse of her hand and pink tint of her nails. She felt the warmth run the life lines of her palm, and air left Cosima's lungs at the feeling of their touch upon each others.

Delphine felt the sensation as well. Her gasp more audible; she felt the stars of that universe in her stomach shoot up her arm and to her hand, mixing with Cosima's galaxy.

They looked to one another as their hands dropped but the feeling lingered. Both didn't deter from their gaze as Cosima's voice filled the empty air.

"So this is what it's like." Cosima's voice was full, a wondrous awe touching the letters. Delphine smiled and bit her lip from her face splitting in two. "Oui, it's amazing. Who could of known of such colours?" Her finger tips came up and traced lightly at Cosima's cheekbones as her eyes flickered to and fro. Realising her bold touch, Delphine flinched back and shook her head in embarrassment while gathering her wits.

"I'm sorry, I-" Cosima gently grabbed her hand before it could hide and smiled up. "Its okay, I understand. You feel pretty amazing as well." Cosima's eyes bulged at her own choice of words and hurried her voice. "Oh my god, that sounded so creepy, what I meant to say was…that-you know…" Delphine chuckled and played with Cosima's fingers lightly as she saw her struggle with words.

"Okay, wow. I'm not the best at first impressions, am I?" Biting her lip and giggling at the endearing brunette Delphine shook her head. "Not at all, but your delightfully cute." Closing her eyes Cosima sighed jokingly, more so trying to reign her thoughts in while the amazing feeling of Delphine's fingers playing with hers had her head swimming.

"Damn, I was kinda going for smooth, suave and sexy. Not feeling it?" Her smile was cheeky, and Delphine found her charm and glasses undeniably adorable. She joked along, happier than she had been in years. "_You _are a cheeky one, mon cher"

She still held her fingers dangling in-between their bodies and she wondered why it took so long for Cosima to barrel into her life (quite literally). She held the feeling of missing Cosima, it was strange, as if making up for the years she hadn't known her. It was _all _strange, like she knew Cosima already. Knew her deeply and thorough.

The next words from Cosima's mouth were of uncertainty and a small dose of fear, a fear Delphine guessed of what they held. Of what it was expected of them. Delphine knew of course, the fear of finding the one you 'supposedly' love and not feeling that feeling. What if they never got along? Were they expected just to walk through life without that feeling of galaxies under their skin? or to live with colour but knowing the one who gave it to you, you both just don't….click?

"You know, I don't really know what comes next. But I already see how amazing you are and I've only spoken to you once. Is it supposed to be this fast?" Her eyes were worried and she bit her lip in confusion. Delphine took her hands in both of hers and smiled, the smile instantly melting away the worries in Cosima's head.

"To be honest? I didn't know it was possible to fall this fast. But Cosima?" Her oak eyes flickered up and she saw so much raw beauty in Delphine it was hard to look away. Not 'pretty' beauty, but the kind that brightens someones soul. "we have a long time to figure it out. Just me and you, oui?"

Cosima's canines showed in a smile that doesn't just show in the mouth but the eyes, and she thanked that whoever ran this show of true love or soul mates that it was Delphine that the colours answered to.

Looking down to her feet than back up she titled her head and shook disbelieving. Disbelief that she saw colours when she saw Delphine. Wondering why of all people, it was a french voice and shining brown eyes that she fell for. Wondering why at a train station and outside a woman's bathroom, her life was altered forever in the most beautiful way.

Answering to Delphine's previous question, Cosima's voice was quite. "Yeah, I'd like that. Juste toi et moi" Delphine's face brightened at the use of language and she smiled (something she was doing a lot lately). "Hm, cheeky geek can speak french?" A teasing smile was sent her way and a look of feigned hurt showed on Cosima's face.

"Hey! I'm not a geek. I'm a fully trained scientist with rad hair" Laughs were shared between the two and they looked as if they had known each other for years. Bantering and sharing gazes not meant for people who were strangers 10 minutes ago.

They both saw colour now, their eyes opened with a future not seen as black and white. Not grey with darker shades in-between. All Cosima saw was yellow sun-kissed hair and home in rose tinted lips. And all Delphine saw was shining eyes and poor french accents mixed with laughter.

It felt like love, and who could deny the simple pleasures of feeling like the world means something.

Who could deny the feeling of colours, as they lit up Cosima's fingertips and shone in Delphine's lips.


End file.
